AI Enabled Atom Arrays

Introducing the world's largest atomic array, Chinese physicists indicate a quantum leap.

Chinese researchers advanced quantum physics by building the largest array of atoms for quantum computers. Its 2,024 rubidium atoms and 60 millisecond build make it ten times larger than previous systems.

Physicist Pan Jianwei, University of Science and Technology of China researchers, and Shanghai Quantum Science Research Center/Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory researcher Han-Sen Zhong led the groundbreaking study. Global academic journal Physical Review Letters reported their findings.

This finding is a crucial step towards large-scale neutral atom quantum computing and computational efficiency. The team's technique lays the groundwork for creation of quantum processors with tens of thousands of Qubits.

Speed and Precision with AI

This achievement relies on a real-time AI system that precisely arranges atoms. Positioning individual atoms, which were qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing, was previously tedious and limited it. Pan's group employed an AI-guided laser instead of atom-by-atom movement to solve this problem.

The device uses a high-speed spatial light modulator to shape laser beams to capture and reorganise rubidium atoms into two- and three-dimensional patterns. After calculating the best pathways and laser guiding, the AI system can move all atoms in the array. This ensures a 60-millisecond setup time for arrays with hundreds or thousands of atoms. Constant time overhead is needed to scale the method to tens of thousands of atoms without slowing it down.

World-Class Precision

Along with its scale and speed, the system operated with world-class accuracy. According to researchers:

The single-qubit accuracy is 99.97%.

Two-qubit operations are 99.5% accurate.

99.92% Qubit state detection accuracy. Top colleges worldwide, including the US, have achieved similar results.

Impact on Quantum Computing

Scalable quantum information processing is promise with neutral atom quantum computers' high-fidelity operations and qubit scalability. This innovation overcomes the challenge of retrieving readout results while maintaining quantum job execution speed.

Balancing fidelity and atomic preservation can help create scalable and high-throughput neutral atom quantum processors, the researchers said. Such systems could revolutionise sensors, simulation, near-term algorithm implementation, simulating complex molecules for drug development, logistics, and materials science optimisation.

Due to their stability and rich scaling potential, neutral atoms are receiving attention in quantum computing research, which has historically concentrated on superconducting circuits and trapped ions. China's “father of quantum” Pan Jianwei's team's latest achievement fits into a bigger national strategy to compete with and possibly surpass international quantum leaders.

Despite its huge scale-up, the new approach cannot move atoms vertically in three dimensions and requires faster light modulators and stronger lasers to reach theoretical limits. The team plans to improve these parts to manipulate larger arrays and enable three-dimensional mobility to construct fault-tolerant, all-purpose quantum computing.